The War on Yemen and Pompeo’s Pathetic Propaganda

The Trump administration keeps desperately trying to shift the blame for the catastrophe in Yemen away from the Saudi coalition and the U.S.:

#Iran’s support for Houthis in Yemen not only enables attacks on Saudi Arabia & UAE, but also risks increasing Yemen’s already massive humanitarian crisis. Ayatollah Khamenei must be held accountable for destabilizing Gulf’s security & prolonging suffering of the Yemeni people.

The administration has consistently focused on the small Iranian role in Yemen and exaggerated its importance while doing everything possible to cover for the Saudis and Emiratis at the same time that the U.S. has aided and abetted their bombing campaign and the many war crimes they have committed. Even now that the coalition is launching an offensive on the major port of Hodeidah that serves the vast majority of the population, the U.S. is not calling them out for their destabilizing and destructive activities. Instead of condemning the coalition for putting millions of Yemeni lives in jeopardy, the U.S. helps them to attack their impoverished neighbor. Instead of using its influence with these governments to rein in their abuses and alleviate the civilian population’s suffering, the U.S. gives them carte blanche, never criticizes them even when they massacre wedding-goers and refugees, and goes out of its way to fault one of the few governments in the region that isn’t attacking Yemen for the country’s miserable state.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is the worst in the world, and the coalition blockade and bombing campaign are principal causes of that crisis. If the administration were even slightly concerned with addressing the suffering of Yemen’s people, it would not be providing weapons, intelligence, and refueling to the coalition, and it would be holding them accountable for their numerous and egregious war crimes and crimes against humanity. They aren’t concerned, and so they continue to support the war on Yemen no matter what the coalition does. Support for this war is indefensible, so it is no wonder that top U.S. officials have to try to distract the world from what our government is enabling in Yemen. It is the Saudi and Emirati governments along with ours and the coalition’s other Western patrons that need to be called out and held accountable for creating the disaster engulfing the people of Yemen.

Preemptive self-defense
Instead of my usual rant, being very generous to the Saudis, the best case you can make for their invasion is that it was a preemptive war of self-defense.

Preemptive wars are acts of aggression.

Has the attack failed?
The good news is that it looks like the UAE, Orc army is suffering attrition at Hudayah. One commentator noticed the reverse timeline, how the airport was taken, then on the verge of being taken, and now the attack is completely stalled. It looks like the Houthis are opportunistically attacking points in the long salient and then disappearing rather than leave themselves exposed.

A sure sign of failure are the angry demands of the KSA coalition, as if their stalling is an act of generosity. They were talking quick victory just a couple of weeks ago. So why are they suddenly negotiating? The Saudis are not a generous people.

We are going to blockade and starve you and your kids to death and subject you to cholera epidemics and kill the doctors who try to help you because the Saudis think your leaders are too close to Iran, and we want to keep the Saudis happy.

Yours sincerely,

A Morally Depraved Jerk Currently Masquerading As US Secretary of State,
Mike Pompeo

What b said and also what Breshnev said. A sane person would think that our complicity in a genocidal war under two Presidents would attract a bit more attention.

My theory is this— we go nuts over scandals like Watergate, Clinton’s various scandals and whatever Russiagate is about, but when we get into truly monstrous acts it is too big for the system to process and most people just ignore it. It is easier to get outraged about stolen emails and perjury and obstruction of justice than about crimes against humanity.

@b.
For some reason, your comment left me thinking. And for the first time in that particular discussion, i.e. denying service to Sarah Sanders, (which I’ve been ignoring), I fully understand what is at stake.

Sometimes, you DO have to confront officials and you do have to shame them in order to crack there ice of ignorance and indifference. One time of her getting kicked out of a restaurant was worth the value of 50 protest marches.